Restore search (Search Server 2010)

There are situations in which you might have to restore a Search service application instead of restoring the complete farm.

Important

You cannot back up from one version of Microsoft Search Server and restore to another version of Search Server.

Important

The procedures in this article restore the search components of Microsoft Search Server 2010. If the topology includes Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, the procedures in this topic also restore the Content SSA and Query SSA (including the People Search index). However, in addition to performing the procedures in this article, you must restore the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint farm. For more information, see Backup and restore (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint).

<SearchServiceApplication> is the path and name of the Search service application in the following form: "Farm/Shared Services/Search Service Application01”.

<BackupFolder> is the path of the backup folder.

<GUID> is the identifier of the backup file to use. To view the backups for the farm, type the following command: Get-SPBackupHistory -Directory <BackupFolder> -ShowBackup. If you do not use the BackupId parameter, the most recent backup will be used. You cannot restore search from a configuration-only backup.

You must also restore the service application proxy. To do this, at the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:

Use the following procedure to restore a Search service application by using the SharePoint Central Administration Web site. This procedure restores all of the search components including the databases, the search service configuration, and all of the index files.

To restore a Search service application by using Central Administration

Verify that the user account performing this procedure is a member of the Farm Administrators group.

In Central Administration, on the Home page, in the Backup and Restore section, click Restore from a backup.

On the Restore from Backup — Step 1 of 3: Select Backup to Restore page, select the backup job that contains the search backup, or a farm-level backup, from the list of backups, and then click Next. You can view more details about each backup by clicking the (+) next to the backup.

Note

If the correct backup job does not appear, in the Backup Directory Location text box, type the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path of the correct backup folder, and then click Refresh.
You cannot use a configuration-only backup to restore search.

Select the check box that is next to the Search service application that you want to restore, and then click Next.

On the Restore from Backup — Step 3 of 3: Select Restore Options page, in the Restore Component section, make sure that Farm\Shared Services Applications\<SearchServiceApplication> appears in the Restore the following content list.

In the Restore Options section, under Type of restore, select the Same configuration option. If you select this option, a dialog box appears that asks you to confirm the operation. Click OK.

Click Start Restore.

You can view the general status of all recovery jobs at the top of the Backup and Restore Job Status page in the Readiness section. You can view the status for the current recovery job in the lower part of the page in the Restore section. The status page updates every 30 seconds automatically. You can manually update the status details by clicking Refresh. Backup and recovery are timer service jobs. Therefore, it may take a several seconds for the recovery to start.

If you receive any errors, you can review them in the Failure Message column of the Backup and Restore Job Status page. You can also find more details in the Sprestore.log file at the UNC path that you specified in step 3.

You must also restore the service application proxy. To do this, in Central Administration, on the Home page, in the Backup and Restore section, click Restore from a backup.

On the Restore from Backup — Step 1 of 3: Select Backup to Restore page, select the backup job that contains the search backup, or a farm-level backup, from the list of backups, and then click Next. You can view more details about each backup by clicking the (+) next to the backup.

Note

If the correct backup job does not appear, in the Backup Directory Location text box, type the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path of the correct backup folder, and then click Refresh.
You cannot use a configuration-only backup to restore search.

Select the check box that is next to the Search service application proxy, and then click Next.

On the Restore from Backup — Step 3 of 3: Select Restore Options page, in the Restore Component section, make sure that Farm\Shared Services\Shared Services Proxies\<Search service application proxy name> appears in the Restore the following content list.

In the Restore Options section, under Type of restore, select the Same configuration option. If you select this option, a dialog box appears that asks you to confirm the operation. Click OK.

Click Start Restore.

You can view the general status of all recovery jobs at the top of the Backup and Restore Job Status page in the Readiness section. You can view the status for the current recovery job in the lower part of the page in the Restore section. The status page updates every 30 seconds automatically. You can manually update the status details by clicking Refresh. Backup and recovery are timer service jobs. Therefore, it may take a several seconds for the recovery to start.

If you receive any errors, you can review them in the Failure Message column of the Backup and Restore Job Status page. You can also find more details in the Sprestore.log file at the UNC path that you specified in step 3.

If you cannot use either the Windows PowerShell or Central Administration to restore the Search service application and associated data, you can manually restore them by using SQL Server tools. You must follow these steps:

Create and configure the Search service application.

Use SQL Server tools to restore all the databases associated with Search service application.

Import all of the index files for all query components.

Edit and restore the search topology XML file.

Decrypt the credentials for the default content access account and crawl rules.

To restore all the databases associated with a Search service application by using SQL Server tools

Verify that the user account performing this procedure is a member of the sysadmin fixed server role.

If the SharePoint 2010 Timer service is running, stop the service and wait for several minutes for any currently running stored procedures to finish. Do not restart the service until after you restore the databases.